I took a shoeless hike yesterday. No, I didn't go very far, but I tried it. And this is my summary of the experience...
It was not bad. Not bad at all. Yeah, sure, I stepped on the occasional rock... but it was never bad enough to do any damage. For the most part, the trail I was on had already had it's fair share of people, dogs, and horses tread along it, and the dirt was packed down and smooth. Because this stretch of mountain side had been paved over time and time again, I didn't really need the protection of my shoes.... the hard part of clearing the imperfections had already been taken care of. Lucky me.
Then I got to thinking... Like I do. The shoeless hike, although adventurous in theory, would be rather terrible if I had decided to do it on a piece of land that was dense in brush, covered in rocks, and never seen another footstep before mine. All trails were like that once, were they not? I really don't think I'd be brave enough to take on something like that.
THEN I got thinking about life. It's kind of like we are thrown into this life shoeless. Sure, we learn little things to keep us safe along the way, but for the most part, we will all step on rocks and get hurt at some point or another. It's easy to take our "shoeless life" and walk the path MOST taken... the ones that have been so worn, that there is nothing but a minor twig, or two, to step on. Some other shoeless person did the hard part and fought through the pain of the forest.
The thing that scares me most is that there won't be enough people who are willing to be that first person to fight through the trials, discover new mountain sides, new views, and new creatures. Why should we hurt ourselves to see something new, when we can take it easy and be part of something already experienced by so many before us. Beautiful. But no longer that brand new adventure no one has ever taken.
So much of what we know today was because someone simply took a step into the unknown to test out an idea that could maybe work. I'm sure they stepped on more than their fair share of rocks and animal droppings. But I'm grateful they did! I'm grateful to the first guy who said "I'm going to tame a wolf and make it my pet!" Or to the guy who said "I am going to create a contraption that will transport us, daily, to where we need to be!" They went in shoeless, and came out with callused, bruised, scraped, cut, and tired feet. But they came out stronger! Their once "new" feet were now built to battle the elements. The more they got hurt, the more they healed back to be stronger than before. And, well, because of those feet that were willing to attempt the unknown, I have my dog. I have my car. And I have beautiful Utah trails to walk on at my leisure.
Anyway. Those are my thoughts. It may just be deeper than even I can figure out, but I think you get what i'm trying to say. :) Why do I always feel I need to be so deep? I don't know. There's more going on in my head than i'll ever be able to write down.
*Disclaimer: This is not an invitation to take of your shoes and climb a mountain. This was merely an analogy. Although, I really did try it out...
